A vehicle can easily run or stop in a normal environment, when there is the required level of friction between the tires and the ground. However, if there is ice or snow on the ground, the friction is reduced and the vehicle tends to lose control while driving. It is the usual practice to mount snow chains on tires of a vehicle to increase the friction while driving in snowy conditions, when the friction level between the ground surface and the tire is significantly reduced.
Conventional snow chains are available in various designs and models, but they still have several drawbacks, such as the associated difficulty while mounting on the tires. Several devices are meant just for the purpose of helping a user mount a snow chain on the tire. This is evident from U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,783 titled “Device for quickly fitting snow chains to vehicle tires” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,754 titled “Device for mounting snow chains on tires”. These emphasize the issue of difficulty faced by a user in mounting the snow chains prevalent in known art.
Typically known snow chains are made of several chain rings and the chain is bent at places between the chain rings; but since each chain ring is rigid, so the snow chains cannot be attached or mounted on the tires firmly and completely. To mount the snow chain on the tire, the snow chain has a portion being pressed under the tire that makes the rest of the portion difficult to move. One has to adjust the chain rings to the right positions one by one and that is very hard and consumes lot of effort and time. To mount the snow chain on the tire is a heavy work, and it is a strenuous job for a weak person, or an elderly person, or a new hand. If the snow chain is not mounted firmly, then the chain might be fastened loosely and can pose a risk to the safety of the vehicle and the driver.
Below are given some of the known prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,347 entitled “Snow chain for vehicle wheels” describes a snow chain that has a connection set having a plurality of planks, each of which has an arch portion and a connection portion. A radial chain set has a plurality of radial chains having ends coupled with the planks respectively. A main chain is coupled with distal ends of the radial chains, wherein the main chain has a hook device to connect opposite ends of the main chain into an annular form. A coupling assembly set has a plurality of coupling devices to tighten two of the planks, each of which has a rotary member and two connection member movably mounted on the rotary member.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,754 entitled “Device for mounting snow chains on tires” describes a device for mounting 3-railer snow chains having three runners on a set of double truck tires which are mounted on an outside wheel and an inside wheel. The device includes a non-elastic strap, a first wheel hook connected to a first end of the non-elastic strap for hooking the device to the inside wheel rim of the inside wheel, and a second wheel hook connected to a second end of the non-elastic strap for hooking the device to the outside wheel rim of the outside wheel. By driving forward or otherwise rotating the tire, the snow chains are tightly wrapped around the tire.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,783 titled “Device for quickly fitting snow chains to vehicle tires” describes a tire chain assembly including two stays hinged at one end on a housing and supporting wall chains which hold tread chains in place on the tread of the tire when they are pulled tight as the stays are drawn together by a resilient linkage. Arms or resilient linkages control displacement and vibration of the stays when the wheel is moving. The device enables gripping equipment to be fitted quickly and easily and is suitable for use on snow-covered, muddy, sandy, or vegetation-covered terrain.
Despite various improvements and progress in the field, some of the major obstacles that still exist are presented herein below.
The existing devices are heavy and bulky for the disabled, the physically handicapped, the elderly, the physically weak and the mechanically non-savvy people. The existing devices are not easy to install (mount) and uninstall (dismount) from the tire. If the device is not mounted correctly, or in a loose manner, then a link can come off and cause damage to the vehicle. The existing devices cannot be used in a modular fashion. Each device has a predefined size of chain links.
The existing devices cannot be installed on a given section of the tire and must be necessarily installed on the entire tire surface. They also do not have provisions for multiple configurations depending on the ground surface condition and medium, such as sand, snow, ice, mud.
The existing devices are not stackable so as to make it as deep as suitable for deeper traction in sand or mud. Also the existing devices do not fit all tires, and need different chain sizes so as to fit different sizes of tires. Another drawback is that they are not expandable, meaning that a bigger and heavier device is needed for larger and heavier vehicles and a smaller device in case the vehicle is lighter and smaller. The performance of the device varies as per weather conditions or surface of the ground since the same device is expected to perform well in different conditions.
The existing devices also cause considerable damage to the road.
Accordingly, improvements are needed in the existing devices that negate the above shortcomings.
It is observed that the purpose and methodology of all the above inventions that are part of prior art do not envisage the unique embodiment of a snow chain device for vehicle tires as described in the present application.
The scope of the invention is to be determined by the terminology of the following description, claims, drawings and the legal equivalents thereof.